Children learn how to perform CPREmergency medicine is a key technique that should be embraced and practiced by all individuals. It revolves around the procedures used when treating a person who is on the verge of death or risk of brain damage caused by cardiac arrest among other diseases. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is one ideal form of emergency medicine that is characterized by external cardiac massage and artificial respiration to a collapsed person with an attempt to restore blood circulation through reviving pulse and breathing.

The data behind successfully teaching kids about CPR

Lower BMI is an inhibiting factor towards CPR effectiveness by the children as chest compressions require reasonable amount of energy. Looking on data researched on 147 individuals with the age bracket of 9 to 18 in Austria, who received a six hours training on cardiopulmonary resuscitation in 2006, 90% of them were successful in giving the correct CPR procedure. However, of that 90%, only 69% were able to tilt the dummy’s head sufficiently to offer effective mouth-to-mouth.

It was also seen that there was a 3 mm difference on chest compressions from the standard adult volume of 38 mm compared to the research’s median depth of 35 mm, with a median compressions per minute of 129 bpm. Such a difference was attributed to BMI and gender factor, with a BMI of 15 and more resulted to a satisfactory chest compression. The male counterparts performed deeper chest compressions better than the female ones (P=0.016).

The researchers held that age was not an influence on the depth of chest compressions or the tidal volume required when giving mouth to mouth. This could be attributed to the fact that children of 9 years could easily learn such procedures. It was in some cases noted that they did the procedure more or less better than adults.

Appropriateness of rescue breathing

The general human perspective of children being unable to perform CPR should be completely overhauled, by implementing CPR training in primary school education. Such skills would cover vital first aid procedures and also early alerting of emergency paramedics. This will enable young individuals to save other children’s life and possibly those of adults too. It will similarly increase the chances of survival of such patients.

Teaching kids CPR is a fact also agreed upon by Benjamin Abella, MD Centre for Resuscitation who argues that schools are important institutions that can be used to largely educate our community concerning CPR. He continues by stating that teenagers are a willing lot, and should be given credit together with other kids. This can be done by offering them the chance to handle serious matters traditionally meant for adults, such as CPR. Douglas Zipes (MD, Indiana University School of Medicine) has the same thinking of including CPR as a lesson in high school. Through such, more benefits would be realized other than emotional drawbacks that may result if a person dies regardless of the child’s help.

Unfortunately, some physicians are critical about the idea of involving children with CPR training. Arthur L. Kellermann (MD, MPH, and Emory School of Medicine) said it’s only reasonable to train the spouses of the victims because most patients are of elderly age.